luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

2025-26 regular season · January 3, 2026 · SO

No betting line for this game, so there is no before-puck-drop or fresh-game number.

Wild at Kings, Jan 3, 2026: who deserved to win?

The Kings beat the Wild 5–4, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Kings win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: shootout alone was worth 51 points of win probability to the Kings.

The biggest swing (SO): the Kings won the shootout, worth 51 points of win probability to the Kings.

Final (SO)

Minnesota Wild 4
Los Angeles Kings 5

January 3, 2026 · Crypto.com Arena

Luck index +49 Kings lucky · −49 Wild

Each team’s own shots from this game, resampled into new games 4,000 times, each a goal at its chance, with the power plays the penalties gave and the pulled goalie at the end: with the way both teams actually played, how often does this performance win? How the replay works

Ten replays. Wild win 5, Kings win 5.

  1. 1 MIN 5 LAK 1
  2. 2 MIN 4 LAK 1
  3. 3 MIN 3 LAK 1
  4. 4 MIN 4 LAK 3
  5. 5 MIN 5 LAK 4
  6. 6 MIN 3 LAK 4
  7. 7 MIN 2 LAK 3
  8. 8 MIN 3 LAK 5
  9. 9 MIN 1 LAK 4
  10. 10 MIN 2 LAK 6

Three other ways to ask

Each answers a different question, so none of them replaces the replay above.

No closing line for this game.

Needs the closing line, which this game has not got.

Every shot redrawn at its chance, overtime and the shootout replayed as near coin flips; the shots themselves and every call fixed. The narrowest view of luck.

How 4,000.2 replays ended

Wild win 49% of them, Kings 51%. The line is what actually happened: Kings by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Wild by 3+18.5%
Wild by 29.4%
Wild by 120.9%
Kings by 121.3%
Kings by 210.0%
Kings by 3+19.9%

Where the luck was

What the luck was worth

Every lucky and unlucky play, weighted by the moment it happened: its swing in win probability, added up by kind. A post hit in a blowout counts for nothing; the same post with a minute left in a tie game can be most of a win.

Swings add up across a game, so in one that went back and forth they can pass 100%. On the scoreboard the same luck was worth +1.0 goals to the Kings: the final margin was Kings by 1, without the luck even. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Wild4842.75+1.25
Kings5142.76+1.24

Regulation with both goalies in. Expected goals: our model of each shot’s chance from where and how it was taken (distance, angle, shot type, rebound, rush, strength), adjusted for the shooter’s and the goalie’s records. A team above expected finished better or met a weaker night in goal; 75% of the gap counts as luck (why that share).

Calls

Every penalty that put a team on the power play, and every goal taken off the board on review, with what it did to the helped team’s chance of winning at that moment. Calls don’t count toward luck by default: who draws penalties repeats from game to game like a skill (how calls are valued). Switch them on below.

WhenCallWin probability for
P2 19:48 High sticking on the Kings (Quinton Byfield): 2 minutes on the power play +4% MIN
P2 14:47 Hooking on the Wild (Joel Eriksson Ek): 2 minutes on the power play +5% LAK
P2 13:18 Tripping on the Kings (Joel Armia): 2 minutes on the power play +5% MIN
P2 4:30 Hooking on the Wild (Brock Faber): 2 minutes on the power play +5% LAK
P2 1:53 Holding on the Kings (Quinton Byfield): 2 minutes on the power play +5% MIN
P3 2:32 Slashing on the Kings (Alex Laferriere): 2 minutes on the power play +10% MIN
OT 1:32 High sticking on the Wild (Brock Faber): 2 minutes on the power play +12% LAK

When it happened

Kings’ chance of winning

Numbers mark the biggest luck moments, listed below.

Our in-game win probability: the score and the time left, starting from the betting line (or the home edge alone when there is none), with goals at the league’s rates for the score. Overtime is drawn at a fixed width. Shaded above the middle while the Kings were ahead in it, below while the Wild were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 11:32 Jake Middleton scored on a snap shot from 36 feetShooting · 5% chance +16% MIN –
2 P2 3:03 Corey Perry scored on a deflected shot from 4 feetShooting · 20% chance +19% LAK –
3 P2 1:37 Joel Eriksson Ek scored on a wrist shot from 20 feetShooting · 10% chance +22% MIN –
4 P3 15:06 Quinton Byfield scored on a shot from 7 feetShooting · 27% chance +20% LAK –
5 P3 12:27 Brock Faber scored on a snap shot from 11 feetShooting · 8% chance +27% MIN –
6 P3 7:51 Samuel Helenius scored on a wrist shot from 25 feetShooting · 7% chance +32% LAK –
7 P3 2:57 Matt Boldy scored on a deflected shot from 5 feetShooting · 13% chance +36% MIN –
8 SO The Kings won the shootoutShootout · shootouts are close to coin flips +51% LAK –

Adjust the assumptions

Think finishing is more skill than we do, or that the calls were luck? Change it and the coin-flip replay reruns in your browser.

Only coin-flips re-rolled

Wild 49% · Kings 51%

Final margin
Kings by 1
Luck in goals
1.0 for the Kings
Luck-adjusted margin
even
Replay with same day's form
Wild 49% · Kings 51% unchanged: why
How much of each is luck?

0% treats it as skill, 100% as pure luck. The tick is our fit.

What counts
Flip a play

Force the other outcome, in this game and in every replay: a goal becomes a save, a post goes in, a penalty goes the other way.

About these numbers

Play-by-play from the NHL via fastRhockey; expected goals, in-game win probability and the replays are our own models, fitted on every game since 2018-19 (methodology and validation). Blocked shots aren’t replayed (their location is the block’s, not the shot’s). No betting line for this game, so there is no before-puck-drop or fresh-game number.

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